RENTON — The Seahawks chose not to play their starters much, nor reveal their scheme on either side of the ball, during the preseason, so their 26-20 season-opening victory on Sunday was the first opportunity to truly evaluate Mike Macdonald, first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and other parts of the operation. Here are a few takeaways from Week 1.
On Wednesday, receiver DK Metcalf said he expected the team’s bread-and-butter on offense to be the run game. He said that was among the first things Grubb expressed to the team in their initial meeting this offseason.
“He was happy to be here,” Metcalf said, recalling the meeting, “then he said we’re going to run the ball.”
In the first half Sunday, Ken Walker III had just 19 yards on seven carries and Zach Charbonnet had three yards on two attempts. Seattle trailed 13-9, the four-point difference due to a pair of safeties. Quarterback Geno Smith’s 34-yard touchdown was the only chain-moving run of the first two quarters. Macdonald spent most of halftime with the defense but applauded the offensive staff for sticking to their identity while adjusting the plan to exploit Denver’s defensive fronts (attacking the C-gap was something Macdonald pointed out postgame).
Walker had 84 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries in the second half before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with abdominal pain (Walker after the game said he’s “OK,” and Macdonald on Monday described the running back’s status as day-to-day). The offensive line was much better in the second half as well, which contributed to Walker’s second-half surge.
The way the first half went tested whether Grubb and his assistants would stay true to their preferred identity. Smith on Sunday applauded them for sticking with it, and Macdonald echoed that sentiment on Monday. It’s clear that despite all the firepower at receiver, Seattle’s identity on offense will be built around the ground game.
“The offensive staff deserves a lot of credit,” Macdonald said during his KIRO-AM radio show Monday morning. “We knew we wanted to put an emphasis on the run game, but to change up some of the formations — without getting into all the strategy involved – I thought they deserved a lot of credit to be able say, ‘Hey, maybe we’ve got to go here within the game plan and adjust some of these things and how we’re building some of this stuff.’
“And the players deserve a lot of credit, too. We were aligned in that moment. We were poised, we were ready to go. We knew what we needed to do. When you watch the tape, our execution rose to the level, too. The coaches did a good job adjusting but the players are the ones who make it happen. They did an awesome job with that.”
K’Von Wallace played 12 defensive snaps on Sunday as the third safety, alongside Julian Love and Rayshawn Jenkins. Wallace has essentially taken over the role Love played last season as the utility guy next to Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs. It may not be a package Macdonald deploys very often but it’s a useful look to have, especially when all three safeties can do a little of everything. All three of them are at their best when coming downhill making tackles, which is what Wallace did when he popped the ball out of Broncos running back Jaleel McLaughlin’s hands on a third-and-11 checkdown in the third quarter.
In Week 1, the use of a third safety freed Jenkins to be closer to the action and show off his playmaking. Going forward that package will also help Macdonald carry out his vision of having interchangeable parts in the secondary to keep the offense off balance. It keeps cornerback Tre Brown off the field, which is probably something Macdonald doesn’t want to make a habit of in obvious passing situations, but it ultimately adds another layer to the defense.
“We are the tip of the spear,” Love said of the safeties. “The energy of this team goes with us. We have to stay consistent, stay locked in, and have guys look to us as a beacon of playing Seahawks football. K’Von, his production rate is probably sky-high with the forced fumble there, whenever he was coming in. And Ray played a great game too. He was just flying around. That’s just swagger, that’s energy, that’s who we want to be.”
Metcalf had one of the best cornerbacks in the league following him around all day, which is one reason he only had three catches for 29 yards on four targets (the first target was a go ball against Patrick Surtain II that hit the receiver in the hands). The Seahawks won’t let the opposition dictate how often Metcalf gets the ball, but sometimes it’s simply more advantageous to exploit other matchups, as Smith and Grubb did on Sunday.
Tyler Lockett caught six passes for a team-high 77 yards on seven targets. On all seven targets, the nearest defender in coverage was second-year cornerback Riley Moss, making his first career start. The first target was Smith’s interception, but that play was less about Moss’s coverage and more about the quarterback being hit as he threw. Every target after that was caught. The first two hookups were back-shoulder fades for first downs. Then Lockett found a soft spot in Moss’s zone for 16 yards. After that, Lockett hauled in a few underneath routes. Then, to ice the game, he ran a crossing route against Moss on third-and-6, making a catch that sealed the victory.
I expect matchup hunting to be a consistent theme in Grubb’s offense. In most games that may mean a big day for Metcalf. In other games it could be Lockett or Jaxon Smith-Njigba. If there’s not a specific player to attack, Seattle may pick its spots situationally, which was the case on Charbonnet’s 30-yard touchdown catch. The Broncos matched Seattle’s 11 personnel (three receivers, one tight end) with heavy personnel and dropped a defensive tackle into coverage, so Smith took advantage of Charbonnet’s speed on a wheel route up the sideline.
“We had them in a personnel that we like, so we went on a quick count,” Smith said. “We had a great play call on. The cornerback (Moss) who maybe should have peeled off actually chased the guy inside, so the D-end tried to peel with him and then (Alex) Singleton tried to go with him. I tried to no-look him a little bit and I saw Zach get behind him, so I was able to get him the ball. I thought Grubb called a great play. Everyone did their jobs and it helped us out right there.”
On two separate occasions, Macdonald demonstrated a willingness to be aggressive. Prior to the game, he said he works with his staff, including research analyst Brian Eayrs, to have a general idea of their approach in those potential go-for-it situations. Macdonald said when the moment arises in the game, he’ll check with Grubb to see how confident he’s feeling while also referring to the numbers provided to him by Eayrs, who is one of the staffers in Macdonald’s ear during the game. After that, Macdonald will make the final call.
After Smith’s touchdown run gave Seattle a 9-8 lead with 5:55 remaining in the second quarter, Macdonald elected to attempt a two-point conversion because the numbers were slightly in favor of trying to take a three-point lead. Smith threw incomplete to Metcalf with Surtain in coverage.
Macdonald said those sorts of aggressive decisions have “been a discussion point over the whole offseason.”
“We’ve gone back and forth on it,” Macdonald said. “We went into this game following the numbers straight ahead. But there’s an argument to be made both ways, so I understand that.”
Facing third-and-6 with a 26-20 lead and 1:48 on the clock at the 34-yard line, Smith threw that crossing route to Lockett to essentially end the game. Denver had one timeout remaining and would likely have had to go the length of the field to win it if the Seahawks failed to convert. The drive began with a run for no gain by Charbonnet that led to the two-minute warning. During the break, Macdonald instructed Grubb to be aggressive based on the situation and then Grubb “called the rest of the drive accordingly,” Macdonald said when asked to explain his thought process.
“It’s a sliding scale,” Macdonald said. “You do quick, back-of-the-napkin math. If I remember right, if we didn’t complete that pass you’re looking at, like, 1:40 with a timeout. They’re in a four-down situation anyway, that’s plenty of time to go down the field, so we were going to have a four-down situation on defense regardless. If we ran it and they used a timeout, now you’re still looking at maybe 1:40 but no timeouts. That’s still a lot of time to go down the field. So, we’re like, shoot, basically the same situation. Let’s go try to put it away right now.”
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